The Room of Reqirement and Perpetual Time Paradoxes
by hello-shadows
Summary: A young Hogwarts student visits a past magizoolygist, in hopes of saving her school, as well as the creature in it. ONESHOT (so far)


**Just a little oneshot with my OC, I don't own HP or Fantastic Beasts.**

Newt Scamander sat on a bench on the deck of the ship he was taking back home, in almost the same position he had arrived to New York in. His case sat on his lap, occasionally shuddering as a particularly displeased animal protested, and he whispered words of comfort to his creatures. Newt guessed it was almost one in the morning, and the part of the deck he was occupying was entirely empty, which suited him just fine. He didn't like crowds, he never had, and doubted he ever would. He liked to quiet, the calm, and being with his creatures, true to his Hufflepuff roots.

Unfortunately for him, his quiet was about to be disturbed. A finger tapped on his shoulder tentatively and Newt found himself whipping around to see a little girl.

"Can I help you?" He asked tentatively.

The girl looked mildly terrified. "Are you- um- Mr. Scamander?"

Newt blinked. He had never been good with people, and most especially children. Creatures had simple needs, simple wants, and could easily be comforted, children, on the other hand, were completely different.

"That would be me." He looked at her more closely. He certainly didn't recognise her, but apparently she knew _him_.

"I need- well, not your help, but - advice I suppose…" She trailed off, shifting uncomfortably. "May I sit down?"

Newt blinked, but gestured her to sit on the bench next to him. The girl moved around the bench to sit by him, her clothes rustling, and that was when Newt realized. She was wearing robes. _Hogwarts_ robes to be specific. The uniform underneath was the same, except for the fact that she wore a grey-brown skirt instead of slacks like he had done, in his day.

She sat a ways away from him on the bench. Newt couldn't help asking, "How did you get here from school? _Why_ are you here? What -" He broke off, turning slightly to look at her from behind his hair.

To his great surprise, the girl smiled. "You were a Hufflepuff, were you not?"

Newt nodded, relief flooding him that he wasn't seeing things, and that there was an actual Hogwarts student sitting besides him. He looked at her more closely, still not full on, but more closely. She had long brown hair pulled into two neat french-braids, a Slytherin tie, and a slight mark behind the ear that was facing Newt.

The girl let out a sigh. "Well, this is even more awkward than I thought it would be. I don't even know where to start." She fidgeted, swinging her short legs that didn't even touch the ground. "I suppose you can call me Bella, as that won't change things much. May I ask; what year is it?"

Newt frowned. He was a smart man, and if he was putting two and two together…

"It was 1926, last time I checked."

The girl, Bella nodded. "That would make you, what, twenty-seven?"

"Twenty-eight, actually." People always seemed to think he was younger than actuality. "Are you actually implying that you-" He stopped.

Bella turned sharply. "You caught on faster than I'd thought." There was a strange glint in her eyes, very different than every other child he'd ever met.

Newt leaned forward, resting his elbows on the edges of his case, preventing the paws of what he guessed were his Niffler poking out. "How?"

The girl sighed again. "Have you ever heard of the Room of Requirement?" He looked at her in confusion. "Perhaps… the Come and Go Room?"

Newt almost fell off the bench. "Your _joking_!" He breathed.

She shook her head. "I'm not. I think that, because the school knows it's so dire, it let me."

"What can be so dire that dear old Hogwarts would let you-" Newt glanced around for the muggle watchmen and lowered his voice. "Travel through time?!"

The girl sighed again, in an almost world weary way and then propped her head on her hand, facing the ocean. "Have you heard of the Chamber of Secrets, by any chance?"

Newt racked his brain, looking out at the ocean as well. How on earth was something he barely knew about helpful to someone, presumably from the future? "The extent of my knowledge stops at it being a chamber created by Salazar Slytherin. Inside of it, he hid a creature capable of exempting all muggleborns from the school." He paused and turned partially to look at her through his hair again. "Has the creature been…ah- released?"

The girl - Bella - he reminded himself, nodded.

"And what do you need advice on involving this creature?" Newt absentmindedly rubbed at the back of his neck, nervous about the answer.

Bella didn't respond, but pulled her legs up and tucked them under her so that she could rest her chin on her knees. Still staring out at the ocean, she spoke. "The problem is, well, we have no idea what the creature is. At the moment we have no living experiences, and the ones still alive are petrified." She buried her face in her hands, then continued, voice now muffled. "First, there was a cat, found hung up by its tail with puddles of water all around and writing in blood on the wall, then there was a boy _and_ a ghost, both petrified, then, most recently, another boy, looking through his camera of all things! The insides were all broken and dead, but he was just _there_ , petrified!"

"And the thing is, well, the last time, a girl died. I tried talking to her- she's a ghost- but she won't say anything except something about eyes. And then, she goes off wailing, back into the toilet."

Newt suddenly saw how young she was, probably no more than twelve. He looked down, feeling slightly ashamed, like the few times he had seen a Slytherin look vulnerable in his school days.

The girl wiped at her eyes almost furiously. "And… well I don't want Slytherin to look any worse than it does, what with it being _Salazar Slytherin's_ bloody creature! And-" She broke off, to wipe at her eyes again. "And… I'm scared. I have friends who are muggleborn, and halfblood, and I think even purebloods are in danger… and-" Her voice dropped to a whisper. "I hear things, from the teachers, from my friends... and they're thinking of closing the school!"

Newt absently chewed his nail. Never in his life had he ever even considered Hogwarts closing… it had always be a constant, a part of the equation. Then, he thought.

Something that petrified, but could kill, something with particularly terrifying eyes….

He narrowed his eyes, glaring at the railing, and suddenly knew. "Did this girl - the one who died, say anything else about the eyes?" He asked quietly.

Bella sniffled and replied. "Big, yellow eyes, and terror, that was all she said."

"Ah." Newt said, now sure.

"And… have any of the gamekeeper's roosters gone missing?" He asked uncertainty.

Bella turned to stare at him in surprise. He noticed that her eyes were the exact same colour as the dark waters they rode upon. "What?!"

"Well, you see," Newt muttered, backtracking quickly, "A basilisk can be killed by the rooster's crow, and well…"

The girl hit herself, rather hard, on the forehead.

"Please don't do that!" He said quietly.

"But I'm so _stupid_! Of course the monster of Slytherin is a bloody huge _snake!_ And petrification? How many monsters do that? Of all the things-"

"Quite a few do, actually…" Newt said absentmindedly.

Bella blinked in confusion. "I'm sorry?"

Newt blinked as well, forgetting he had spoken aloud. "There are quite a few creature that petrify before killing." He scratched at the back of his neck once again. "Basilisks aren't _really_ monsters, you know, in a normal habitat they only kill when provoked or hungry…"

He let his hair fall into his eyes so to hide his embarrassment slightly. The girl had an odd look in her eyes. "Of course they aren't! They are rather fascinating actually… very watery. I love water…" She trailed off, looking at the sea again, a look in her eyes that had been captured in a few pictures of himself, the look he had when watching his creatures.

"Not to be rude, but if you don't mind me asking…" Bella made a non-committed noise, still looking at the water. "Are you by any chance," He squinted at her slightly. "Part Mer?"

Bella turned to look at him. "How is that rude?"

Newt shrugged, looking at his case.

"Well, I'm not _Mer…_ per say… but…"

Newt looked up and saw that she was extending her hand. Very cautiously, he laid her tiny, long fingered hand on his own. He saw immediately that the normally tiny stretch of skin in between fingers reached almost a third of the way to her joint, giving her hand a slightly flipper-like appearance.

He looked a little further, past her wrist, to see a huge smattering of freckles, just like her face. Her nose turned up slightly, and her nostrils seemed to pull away from each other slightly. What gave it away were her eyes; huge, and the same colour as the sea, so close, he could almost see the gentle whitecaps frothing in those large pools.

"Roanes?" He whispered.

"I can see why you're famous! You're so good-" She clapped her hand over her mouth. "Well, anyway, I, ah… identify as selkie…" She trailed off, smiling awkwardly.

All Newt could do was stare. He had met a selkie, something he had always wanted, and she had told him the future, asked about futuristic basilisks, and acted far older than she seemed.

Suddenly, her smile disappeared and she looked at him intensly. It reminded him of Leta far to much for his liking; so he hid behind his hair.

"You can't tell anyone, not about the basilisk, the future, me, anything at all. If you do, we could create a paradox, and I could be trapped in a time limbo!" At his alarmed and slightly shy look, she added, "Don't worry, I knew the risks when I stepped through this door." She looked over his shoulder, and he turned to look as well, at the hold door that was open a crack, letting in an odd light.

Bella stood up. "Thank you Mr. Scamander. I think you just saved a few lives, as well as Hogwarts!"

Newt stood too, leaning slightly on the bench. "Well, it wasn't me, really, it was you who -"

She let out a bark of laughter. "Oh, Mr. Scamander, you're much better than the world lets on."


End file.
